Barnard's Express , later known as British Columbia Express Company or BX , is a pioneer transportation company serving the Cariboo and Fraser-Fort George regions of the British Columbia, Canada from 1861 to 1921.
The company's start date returns to the top of the Cariboo Gold Rush when the adventurous gang is down in the Cariboo area. There is a great demand for passenger transportation to and from the gold fields, as well as the delivery of mining equipment, food supplies and letters between Victoria and Barkerville.
Video Barnard's Express
Stages of the year
The first express service offered on Jalan Cariboo was operated by William Ballou in 1858. Others soon followed, usually one or two human operations in which the owner himself stuffed express items, either on his back or with the help of a trustworthy donkey.
In December 1861, Francis Jones Barnard established a pony express from Yale to Barkerville. The company was originally owned by William Jeffray and W.H. Thain and has been known as Jeffray and Company Fraser Express. In the summer of 1862, Barnard merged his company into British Columbia and Victoria Express Company and won a government contract to send a letter.
In 1863 Barnard put two horse-drawn carriages on the run from Lillooet to Fort Alexandria. Other freight companies, Dietz and Nelson operate the postal trains between Victoria, Lillooet and Yale, connecting with Barnard's Express.
Stages
SM Express Company has various stagecoaches. Some only need two horses and are called "jerky", while others are drawn by four or six horses. Some have closed carriages and others open. For winter travel, stagecoaches are replaced by sleds of various sizes, including some that can carry fifteen passengers. Many stagecoaches then are the Concord stages, built with shock absorbers made of leather springs made for a more comfortable ride.
In 1876, the company had a postcard built in California specifically for the visit of the Governor-General, Lord and Lady Dufferin, who drove him from Yale to Kamloops and back. The coach is painted in bright red and yellow BX colors and has a Canadian emblem on the front panel. It cost $ 50 a day to drive by this famous coach, but many visiting diplomats and British aristocracies drove Dufferin when they went hunting in Cariboo.
The horses
The first horse used by the company came from Oregon. Then, in 1868, 400 heads were purchased in California and Mexico and taken to a company farm in Vernon. Later, when the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed, most of the company's horses were purchased locally or shipped from Alberta or Saskatchewan.
The company has a strict policy that they will not buy a broken horse. Companies want their horses trained exclusively for staging, a process that generally takes three months, even then they never really get damaged and must be handled expertly. A hostler will lead the team to the stage only after the luggage has been secured and the passenger and driver are seated safely. Once reached onto the stage, control is given to the driver and he can release the brakes. The stage horses often jump and be nurtured at the start of the journey, but settle in a smooth motion as they are walking. The whip is rarely used to encourage them, because they know the next station means a good bait and a warm cage.
The stations are about 18 miles away and the teams change at each station. The hostlers at the station are proud of taking care of the company's horses, often competing to see who keeps the team in the best condition. One rule that is really followed is that each horse has its own armor, which is cleaned whenever it is taken. To ensure that the horses always have the right shoes, traveling with the portable winged horses visit the stage station on a regular basis.
Route and stage rates
After the company's headquarters moved to Ashcroft in 1886, the main line was extended from Ashcroft to Barkerville, a distance of 280 miles. Other branch lines lead to camps and mining settlements throughout the caribou.
The stage rate from Ashcroft to Barkerville is $ 37.50 in the summer and $ 42.50 in winter. Passengers who leave the train at Ashcroft and take to the stage at 4 am can expect to arrive at 83 Mile House that night and Barkerville two days later.
Maps Barnard's Express
The sternwheeler years
In 1903 it was announced that the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway would come from Winnipeg to Prince Rupert via the Yellowhead Pass. To anticipate the entry of new settlers into the region, Charles Millar extends the company's services to sternwheelers and cars and extends routes to Fort George.
The company built an office and landing ship in the new town of Fort South George in 1910.
Sternwheelers
Royal Mail BX and BC Express were launched in 1910 and 1912 respectively. Both were built by Alexander Watson Jr. in Soda Creek. The BX is built for routes from Soda Creek to Fort George, while BC Express is built for routes from Fort George to TÃÆ'ªte Jaune Cache.
Captain
The captain of BX is Owen Forrester Browne, an experienced Fraser River pilot. By the time he took command of BX in 1910, he was already known in the area, as he was the local sternwheeler captain of Charlotte.
The captain of BC Express is Joseph Bucey, an experienced Skeena River pilot. At Skeena, he had driven Inlander from Port Essington to Hazelton.
Sternwheeler route and fares
The BX takes a semi-weekly trip from Soda Creek to Fort George, taking two days to journey upstream and less than a day for the trip back. In 1910, the stage fare from Ashcroft to Soda Creek was $ 27.50 and the steamship fare from there to Fort George was $ 17.50. The meal was 75 cents and the bed was $ 1.50. The cost of shipping the stage is sixty dollars per tonne and the cost of transporting steamers is forty dollars per ton.
Automobiles
In 1910, the company began running cars on Jalan Cariboo. Some vehicles, owned by private cargo companies, have been operating on the road since 1907 and companies are realizing that they need to add cars to their services in order to stay competitive. These vehicles work on a route from Ashcroft to Soda Creek where they meet with the company's sternwheelers.
These first cars were bought by Winton Sixes from a car factory in Seattle. BC Express Company buys two cars at a cost of $ 1,500 each and then adds options such as peaks at $ 150, horn horns, $ 50 and kerosene parking lamps, $ 75. The Winton Company also provides two drivers, who are also mechanical, because there are some people who know how to operate and repair the vehicle.
Then the company built a garage and machine shop in Ashcroft and, because there was no service station, arrangements were also made with Imperial Oil of Vancouver to supply and ship the required gas and oil drums. The drums are then placed in key locations along the way.
The company bought more vehicles over the next few years and all painted red and yellow, the company colors. Although the freight forwarding business remains fast and the cars are a favorite of travelers, they never generate huge profits for the company. Although private operators can discontinue their services when road conditions are bad, BC Express Company has advertise car service in all weather conditions from May to October. Fulfilling that promise meant many mechanical crews and drivers had to be nurtured. In 1913, it cost the company $ 67,233 to keep their fleet of 8 Wintons. The largest amount is used for repairs, but $ 15,835.53 is spent on tires only. In addition, the total profit made that season was only $ 3,337.23, which the company believes is not a big number considering the risks and investments involved.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway
At the end of August 1913 Captain Bucey took BC Express from Fort George to TÃÆ'ªte Jaune Cache when he stopped the cable across the river on Mile 141 where the railroad was building a bridge. The train reneged on their promise not to block the boat trip on the river. Bucey changed BC Express back to Fort George and promptly sent the company's chief of fi ce to Ashcroft and informed them of the obstacle. BC Express Company has a Railway Board of Commissioners investigating the situation and the Board re-supports the company and tells the railway they have to build bridges at Mile 141 (Dome Creek) and others in the Bear River area (just south of Hansard) with lift ranges like which they had promised. GTP refused the order, stating that if they change the bridge level, they should change the value level. The company brought the train to court for damages and lost revenue, because they had earned more than $ 5,000 a week on the route, but by the time it was heard, World War I had begun and the company's lawyers were involved in war work and could not show up. His successor, a junior partner with little experience, was unable to prepare and present the evidence properly and the company lost the case. Without a substantive response by the county government, the company continues with legal proceedings that do not successfully appeal as far as the Privy Council in London. Some historians have suggested that railway build bridges to block navigation because of spite and dislike for the BC Express Company because its owner at the time, Charles Vance Millar, had managed to negotiate with First Nations people at Fort George to buy the land that GTP wanted for townsite, forcing GTP to sell some of the main properties to Millar, which he developed and then called Millar Addition.
Corrupt BX
With the completion of the train on 7 April 1914 and navigation blocked on the Hansard bridge on route to TÃÆ'ªte Jaune Cache, the company runs BX and BC Express from Soda Creek to Fort George.
With the construction of Pacific Great Eastern Railway, the sternwheelers are needed to help deliver supplies and food supplies to the labor camp. In 1915, the train broke, work stopped. Despite having a monopoly over river traffic, BX completed the season with a $ 7,000 loss. The BC Express is provided for special trips.
In 1916 and 1917, sternwheelers were not used in the upper Fraser River at all. Then, in 1918, after an appeal from the Quesnel Trade Council, the provincial government granted the BC Express Company $ 10,000 annually to continue navigating the river from Soda Creek to Fort George. The request was justified because Quesnel and other communities along the river had been promised trains, but the construction on PGE had slowed to a crawl and in fact would not be completed for Prince George until 1952. Meanwhile, settlers and farmers needed a way to send their crops to market and price steamer is the most sensible choice.
The BX ran until August 30, 1919, when he was impaled by a famous rock called "Woodpecker" and drowned with 100 tons of bagged cement devoted to the construction of the Deep Creek Bridge. In the spring of 1920, the rescue work was completed and at a cost of $ 40,000 BX was raised and patched sufficiently to bring it back to Fort George. The BC Express pushed it back upstream through Fort George Canyon and into the shipyard at Fort George. This will be the first time in the history of sternwheelers that someone will push another upstream through the canyon.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments